A Tyneside sailor captured and held hostage by Iranian authorities was today freed ending a three-day diplomatic stand-off.

Robert Webster, of Silver Lonnen, Denton, Newcastle, is one of eight British sailors who was paraded on Arab TV after their patrol boats were picked up close to the Iraq border.

Wife Jacqueline and their two sons have been anxiously waiting for him to be released after a series of delays.

There had been hopes that the six Royal Marines and two Royal Navy sailors would be released yesterday, but the on-off plans for the handover appeared to have hit an eleventh-hour hitch.

Today the Foreign Office said the eight have been released into the care of British diplomats and were heading to the Iranian capital Tehran.

The group boarded a plane in the south west of the country at 8.30am for the 90-minute flight. A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "The men are now in the hands of British diplomats. I've just been telephoned by one of them as they walked to the plane. They are safe and well."

It was expected that the men would be taken to the British Embassy but officials were unable to say whether they would then return to Britain.

Father-of-two Mr Webster, who is the leading firefighter at Newcastle Airport, was arrested on Monday along with the seven other sailors.

Their three small patrol boats were seized after the Iranian authorities said they entered their territorial waters in the Shatt al-Arab waterway which divides Iran from Iraq.

The row threatened to develop into a full-blown diplomatic crisis on Tuesday when the men were paraded blindfolded on Iranian television. Mr Webster and another captor "confessed" to having crossed into Iranian waters.

Since their arrest they have been held in the remote south-western town of Bandar Manshahr and were only visited by diplomats from the British embassy in Tehran for the first time yesterday.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards had claimed that the eight men were caught carrying "suspicious weapons" and threatened to put them on trial for spying.

A former long-term colleague of Mr Webster, who did not want to be named, said: "As soon as he came on the television I recognised him.

"I was extremely surprised and shocked to see he had been captured, but I did know that he was in the Royal Navy Reserve."

Mr Webster is understood to be a former Navy rating who joined the reserve after leaving full service.

Eric Westwood, Manager of the Fire and Rescue Service at the airport, confirmed that Mr Webster is the leading firefighter there and has been on a detachment with the Ministry of Defence.

Mr Westwood said: "All our thoughts go out to his family and friends and we want this situation to be resolved as quickly as possible."